They were the first: formation of the historical community in Novosibirsk in the 1960s-1970s

The article reconstructs the process of foundation and development of the Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy, SBRAS (1966, now Institute of History, SBRAS) in Novosibirsk, along with the History Unit of the Humanities Department at the Novosibirsk State University from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. The Institute of History was formed on the basis of the Permanent Commission for Social Sciences at the Praesidium of Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1959), which was reorganized into a Sector (1961), then a Department of History (1962) at the Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering, SBRAS. Archaeologist, Doctor of Historical Sciences A.P. Okladnikov was invited from Leningrad to lead these structures. On their basis, the scientific historical community of Akademgorodok was formed and consolidated in the field of study and teaching the history of the USSR. It was replenished both with specialists who taught the history of the CPSU at the Novosibirsk higher education institutions (N.Ya. Gushchin, A.S. Moskovskiy, V.L. Soskin, T.I. Agapova), and with historians who were invited from other Siberian cities, above all, Tomsk (L.M. Goryushkin, D.M. Zolnikov) and Irkutsk (A.A. Alekseev, I.I. Komogortsev) and Moscow (M.M. Gromyko, A.N. Kopylov). In 1966-1980, 17 of these researchers defended their doctoral dissertations. None of them had been born to Novosibirsk; half of them had become Candidates of Historical Sciences before they started working in the above-mentioned research centers. Most of them had graduated from the Moscow State University, Moscow State Institute for History and Archives, Irkutsk and Tomsk State Universities. All of them were aged between 28 and 40, most of them were of peasant origin, and seven participated in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The group under study was characterized by a high degree of social and migration mobility. All of them were males except for M.M. Gromyko and T.I. Agapova. They formed the backbone of the academic staff of the Chair of History of the USSR at the History Unit which was established in 1962 at the Humanities Department of the Novosibirsk State University. Starting from 1967 its graduates completed postgraduate studies at the Institute and University and later became members of the University's Chair and Institute's Sectors (N.A. Minenko, T.S. Mamsik, N.D. Zolnikova, I.S. Kuznetsov, S.S. Bukin et al.). In total 41 graduates of the NSU had become Doctors of Historical Sciences (specialty 07.00.02 - Russian history). V.V. Alekseev and N.N. Pokrovsky were elected Academicians of RAS; L.M. Goryushkin and V.A. Lamin became RAS Corresponding-Members. They were among those who contributed to creation and functioning of the multidisciplinary humanities complex. Therefore a scientific community that determined the development of historical studies in the Asian part of Russia during the considered period was formed. Their main accomplishment was publication of “The History of Siberia” (in 5 volumes) in 1968-1969.

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